Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1915 — WEIGHING AND RECORDING COW’S MILK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WEIGHING AND RECORDING COW’S MILK

(By R. W. LATTA, New Mexico Experi- ■*' ment Station.) ■-■■a Efficiency is the demand of the times and records of production are the first step in a study of efficiency. It pays to know what any producing factor in an industry is doing. Weighing and recording a cow’s milk requires only a few seconds, and will give new interest to the work. Butterfat testa should be made at regular intervals, as oqce a month. In taking a sample of a cow’s milk for a butterfat test, the following factors should be borne in mind, as causing variation in the test: Night’s and morning’s milk commonly vary in v richness. The first milk drawn, the middle milk, and the strippings all test different. The milk tests lower when the cow is fresh, and go higher as she falls off in milk. Abnormal weather, or other environmental, nervous, or health conditions. Unexplainable and irregular variations from day to day. Age of animal, the mature cow’s milk testing more than a heifer’s. Breed has a marked influence on

the test, but individuality causes greater variations. These influences remain fixed, however, and each cow has a normal individual fattest, and this cannot be changed by feeding or management. The following rules should be observed in sampling a cow’s milk for a butter-fat test: Select a period of normal feed, weather and general conditions. With all of the milking in one vessel, pour back and forth between pails, three or four times. Put a small portion in a clean, tightly-sealed bottle, with some preservative, as a corrosive sublimate tablet, to keep the sample from souring. Repeat this with four or six successive milkings, adding an amount to the sample in proportion to the amount of milk in each milking. After each addition to this composite sample, whirl the sample bottle around till all the cream which has stuck to the sides of the bottle is thoroughly mixed into the milk again.. Keep the sample in a cool, dry place. Two ounces of milk is ’ enough for a fattest in duplicate.

Holsteins and Guernseys on a Wisconsin Dairy Farm.